It is hard to understand the deep reasons behind the American aversion to taxes and government. Is it the vestigial expression of a rugged individualism born on the American frontier? Is it racial hostility—an unwillingness by whites to fund social programs that some believe unduly benefit minorities?

Really!? When you’re trying to work out why people like lower taxes, racism is one of the first things that comes to mind?

The popularity of low taxes is pretty easy to understand. For most people it goes something like this: I like having stuff. Money lets me buy stuff. Therefore, I like keeping my money and not giving it to the government. What kind of mind jumps immediately to racism instead of understanding that?

It’s just a small symptom of the obsession with race that is building in the U.S. Take another example from the New York Times, this one an op-ed by Ekow N. Yankah, a law professor at Yeshiva University, published on Saturday:

I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people …. As against our gauzy national hopes, I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible.

What both these quotes have in common (aside from the publication and that they’re both from the last few days) is that they smear vast numbers of people with the label “racist.” Racism is so common among white people that black boys cannot trust them to be friends, says Yankah. If you don’t like high taxes—an opinion that doesn’t just apply to Republicans—then you’re probably a racist, says Porter.

I’m not American, I don’t live in America, and I’m no expert on America’s social commentary. But it’s not hard to see that these kinds of statements are nonsense, yet they are appearing more and more in the nation’s news media.

Race is a highly charged subject in the United States today, and in many other nations. Past wrongs and present inequalities create fertile ground for hurt, frustration and anger. Many prominent leaders, both black and white, are deliberately fueling those grievances for their own political gain. They are using race as a deadly weapon! The problems that will result are far more dangerous than they realize.

He pointed out that the left has a long history of using race to motivate people against the pillars of American society:

The New Left was a powerful political movement that swept through the nation in the 1960s and 1970s. Agitators and educators worked to bring about changes in homosexual rights, abortion, gender roles, drugs and other issues. The movement was closely tied to the hippie movement, and it achieved many of its lawless goals. The New Left was almost identical to the Communist Party.

The champions of the movement had stunning success in working their way into key positions in today’s Democratic Party!

These leaders are still using phrases like “police brutality” and “black power” to further their agenda. … Stirred up by our highest leaders and by pop culture icons like Beyoncé, discontent and protests are spreading across the nation. Riots and acts of racist violence are becoming more common and widespread. Where will this end? What happens in America as major groups of angry, violent people are mobilized? What will you have when the Constitution is destroyed?

The U.S. Constitution has probably brought about more racial justice than any other document in world history, aside from the Bible. The people leading the Black Lives Matter movement are not promoting a plan that will bring about more racial justice.

These kinds of casual accusations of mass racism are leading in a dangerous direction. To learn more about where statements like this are taking the U.S. and what is really behind it, read Mr. Flurry’s article “The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter.”